Optical fibers are widely used in a variety of applications, including the telecommunications industry in which optical fibers are employed in a number of different applications. The optical fibers are carried in fiber optic cables which range from one to as many as 216 optical fibers. Normally, the fiber optic cable contains groups of 12 optical fibers in buffer tubes, either loose or in ribbon form. If a cable is to be joined to another cable or hardware in the field by connectors, it is common to attach the connectors to the cable at the factory before the cable is shipped to the installation site. This process is called "connectorization."
Fiber optic cable connectorization is typically a very labor intensive process because the fiber optic connector is usually attached to each optical fiber in the fiber optic cable manually, one at a time. The size and bulk of the cable may dictate that the connectorization occur at one location to miniimize the need to move the large cable around. The manual process involves furcating the optical fibers which are usually housed in buffer tubes inside of the fiber optic cable using a buffer tube fanout insert assembly of many that are known in the art. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,231,688 discloses a furcation kit that furcates the individual fibers from a cable for connectorization. After the furcation, a connector is installed that requires precise techniques to insure quality.
A need exists for a method and apparatus that improves the connectorization process of large fiber count cable.